Lieutenant JG Amelia Semara - Lessons Learned, Part 1

[Max]

(( Deck 1, Conference Room, USS Khitomer ))

If there was only one thing Amelia learned from the prior mission, it was this: wear pants to the briefing.

Whatever stylistic preference she may have had for the skant variant of any given uniform set, or however much the former femme fashionista inside of her churned at the more blah uniform style, there was simply no denying that if there was going to be any repeat loss of gravity and lights, EVA suits, or shifts so long that one lost track of the hours... She'd rather be wearing pants.

Of course, Amelia had learned a great deal more than just that one thing.  For instance, to be mindful of the jewelry one wears.  Mercifully, it hadn't been the Golden Leaf of Semizad in her hair last mission, and it wasn't this time either.  In fact, it was the same sapphire-inset gold barrette she'd worn the prior mission, brought back to shimmering beauty by a particularly artful Ferengi Ayemet had recommended to her.  Amelia had no love of the large-eared species, but they did know how to make shiny things look good.  Now it was her Lucky Barrette.

Oh, and there were the practical things she learned, too: about Sencha Radiation, gel packs, and about the unauthorized modification of the Khitomer's orders that had sent them all to the Lagoon Nebula the first time.

And she was also learning how interesting her under-cover Intelligence posting could be.  The first time she ran privileged computer queries, there was a sort of strange headrush of power in learning the access she now held: she could find out about almost everything that happened on the ship - and a shocking amount outside the ship, too.  Of course, with that power, came the responsibility to know everything that happened on the ship and in the sector.  Easy, right?

El’Heem: ::leaning down and speaking softly to Amelia:: Morning Lieutenant. I trust you put the finishing touches on the replacement packs?

Ras' voice pulled her out of her idle musings, and her eyes off the information on her PADD she'd been reading and re-reading.  Hopefully she hadn't been grinning strangely at the small screen while her thoughts wandered through the sunny fields of irrelevance.  It wouldn't have matched the glum mood in the conference room.

Semara: Mornin' sir.

Still getting used to that one.  But it was a good change.  She had enough on her hands without also pretending to head up the science department in any fashion.  Her head craned up and around to see how the man was doing.  Well, it seemed.  She smiled a little.

Semara: Yeah - Ensign Porter and crewmans Kester and Kent did the grunt-work, but I checked it over the last of 'em myself yesterday.  Diagnostics were clean.

Another thing she was learning to do - put her rank to good use and delegate.

El’Heem: Good. We’ll see if we can get away with it for now.

Semara: We know what to look for now.  We'll keep an eye on things.

Shayne: We’re going back.

Amelia turned back to the table at the sound of Shayne's voice, feeling the emotional thunderclouds hanging close to the captain.

R. Matthews: Back to?

Zerva: Where else? The one place we don’t want to go back to, again.

There was really only the one place they'd been recently.

Dewitt: Why?

Trouble, most likely.

Any: Response

Amelia was grateful she'd taken a slow morning for herself.  Her body was still wonderfully loose and awake from a half hour of yoga-like movement and stretching.  It was a pleasant sensation to relish in contrast to the way the rest of the crew was already empathically tightening back up, compressing like a spring.

Another lesson she'd learned: build a garden of calm, and nurture it at every step through the mission.

Shayne: DS33’s deep space telescopes have detected trace emissions of Sencha radiation from the Lagoon Nebula. I have assured the admiralty that the probe that was launched was disabled thoroughly- ::he cast a wandering eye towards El’Heem:: -so the conclusion they’ve drawn is that it must be a new source, and given our experiences with the Lattice Alliance, it’s been made our top priority. 

She caught her gaze drifting across the table and meeting Alix's eyes.  The woman of course knew only rumors and whispers of what had happened last time.  Amelia smiled warmly.  Her friend had quickly become another part of her morning routine, and today was no different.  Sure, it was only a very short walk together to the turbolift and then to the conference room, but it brightened her day, getting even the spare moments with her friend that would have fallen in the cracks.

Alix hadn't been there to know what happened last time, and Amelia hoped the sour mood on the crew wouldn't make her despair too soon.  They had all learned a lot since the last time they were in the Lagoon Nebula.

Shayne: I will refrain from putting too fine a point on it, but anyone aboard for the last mission has more experience with the perils of this nebula than I do. I will be relying on each of you for your expertise. Mr. Korras, you’ll set a course for the Lagoon Nebula, Warp 9. 

All eyes went to the new Klingon officer in the room.  Helm officer, apparently.  Then again, it seemed he possessed the kind of stature that made it impossible for him to be out of eyeline so long as he was in the room.

Amelia smiled a little.  She always liked Klingons for some reason.  Maybe it was the fond memories of groups of them visiting the valley she grew up in.

Korras: ::nodding:: Yes sir.

Ah, how perfectly Klingon those two words were.  Perhaps a bit of stoicism and redundant body parts were exactly what a helmsman needed to survive being posted to the Khitomer.

She made a note to make sure he got a welcome basket.

Attention came her way.

Shayne: What progress have you made on insulating our gel packs from the phenomenon? And I know we just got off shore leave, so if the answer is “none”, I understand.

R. Matthews: So, about that. :: Richard glanced between Semara and Ras before turning back to the captain :: We actually found that the reason our gel packs were so susceptible to the radiation was because of foreign DNA introduced to them during production.

"Foreign."  Interesting way of putting it.

Maybe Ras had more time, and had a better answer than she did.  She cast him a wayward glance.  He seemed to be settling into his second full pip well...

El’Heem: ::clearing his throat:: We’re still looking into it, but it seems to be that the entire generation of packs we had implemented at our last refit were affected.

What time Amelia had gotten after returning to duty had largely been spent on other endeavors, so, for her part, answering the captain's question was easy.

Semara: But that discovery ain't led to useful protection.  Yet.

R. Matthews: Due to the nature of gel packs and how difficult they are to make. We had the full supply of the original packs still in storage. We’ve taken them out and used them to replace the damaged packs.  And are currently working with the packs we saved and the new packs Starfleet provided us. There are problems with this, of course.

El’Heem: Indeed. Everything will still work as it always has; we just won’t have those sub 4 planck-cycles of computational time shaved off that Ops has been so fond of. We’re working on a longer-term solution to make up for it.

Something gave her the sense that Juliet was more than up to the task of compensating.

Semara: We don't know yet how different gel pack models react to Sencha, only hypotheses.

Shayne: Very well. I insisted on a, frankly, vast surplus of gel packs, so experimentation is authorized. And speaking of insulating- 

Shayne's attention turned to Talia and Alix.

Shayne: Most of the ship has been inoculated- would a double dose be beneficial in any way? Or should Mr. Korras and myself make our way to Sickbay for a hypo? 

Why wasn't the inoculation tried on the gel packs?

Amelia thumbed through her notes on the PADD again - right, it was tried.  Explosions.  Why did it not surprise her to learn Richard had been present for that?  She smirked a little to herself and shook her head.

Ohnari: ::rubbing forehead in agitation:: I will need to get back to you Sir, the vast amounts we've already had exposure to and the effects of continued inoculation is going to take some time...but I will have an answer for you before we're in range.  

It was strange.  Was she the only one not particularly fussed about going back?  It was an opportunity to tease apart where they'd gone wrong... maybe learn something from the experiment, rather than having the whole thing be a waste.

Harford: Response

Shayne: Commander Dewitt, Lieutenant Michaels, Ensign Banks, I want this ship ready for anything. Sencha, fighting, hell, the Big Bang. I want to be able to get out of any situation we find ourselves in with speed, durability, and an embarrassing amount of firepower.

Right.  Probably because everyone was worried that the Lattice Alliance was waiting for them in that nebula.  Otherwise they wouldn't need embarrassing amounts of firepower.  She put on her thinking face, brows slightly furrowed, as if peering into the distance - for some reason, that hypothesis didn't seem right.  It seemed unlikely that the Lattice Alliance were the ones who'd altered their original orders.  Though she couldn't rule it out, she supposed.

Dewitt: Understood. We’ll begin a full diagnostic sweep of the propulsion systems immediately. We’ll also cycle through the secondary power matrix so we can standby for an emergency shield modulation if things go sideways. Engineering will be ready by the time we hit that nebula.

Michaels: I anticipate that we may need the Sencha Dispersion Array available. In addition, there were several devices, instruments and tools that were in short supply last time. I would recommend obtaining additional ones if we have time and opportunity.

Whoever altered their orders also knew about the SDA.  They had to, otherwise they couldn't know where to send the Khitomer last time.  Perhaps they knew the system more intimately than any of the officers in this room.  Activating it again would be a risk far bigger than Lera could have calculated... But Connor and Shayne would know that.

Maybe she could rule out the Alliance.  The secrecy around that project had been such that even the bridge officers barely knew the full story.

Banks: ::nodding:: I’ll get Ops working on hardening our computing capability against the nebula’s conditions.

Michaels: :: To Banks :: It appears that you will be working with Engineering. If you need any assistance, you know you can ask me at any time. Ensign Lacy is also a good source.

And then orders were given to the other yellow-collars.

Shayne: Mr. Zerva, Mr. Matthews, preparations aside, there’s been little to nothing to suggest concentrated Alliance movements in the nebula. Still. Schedule tactical simulations and security drills on all shifts until we get to our destination.

Zerva: ::nodding to the Captain:: Yes sir. We have a plan between our two departments that was worked shopped on during shore leave. ::casting a glance at Lieutenant Matthews:: We’ll begin simulations on the Holodeck at once sir.

Drills and simulations.  She wondered if that was something she'd be assigned to, soon enough.

C Matthews: Response 

Shayne: Mr. Hobart, you and Lieutenant Dewitt will review mission logs, recent Alliance movements, any information that might shed some light on what we’re heading towards.

Scratch that thought - those were the officers she'd be working with soon enough.  She'd been reading reports about Alliance movements just before the briefing, just in case it was something she was called upon to know.  Working that closely with Hobart again wasn't something she was fully prepared for, though.

Hobart: Aye, Captain. We’ll put together a list of suspects, in descending order of likelihood.

A Dewitt: Response

Shayne: We’ve got a fair few hours before we get there, even at Warp 9. Let’s make every second count. Dismissed.

Tag / TBC...

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Lieutenant Junior Grade Amelia Magnolia Semara

Science Officer - Special Projects

USS Khitomer - NCC-62400

A239710MA0